I am also ready.

The one I am most curious about seeing clarified is this point...

"Depth and RGB video recording for ASUS Xtion sensor"

Does that mean the Xtion will be able correlate both RGB and Depth together in one capture, because this is really the ultimate capture format imho. I love the 6 PS3 eyes but I find the 2 Kinetic in a 360 type setup is fast, and easy to work with, but it loses some data in complex actions, if errors could be corrected or positions correlated between RGB and Depth I think tracking would largely be spot on.

As for the upgrading to 2.0... I think as long as its actually delivered, and there is no reason to think they would not, look at the list of changes.

- Head tracking
- Prop tracking
- finger posing
- female actor and optimizations
- improved skeleton and overall tracking
- New File Format
- Higher Compression
- Improved Workflow
- "Potentially" RGB and Depth capturing in one depending on how my question gets answered

All those are pretty significant changes and well warrant a major version change imho.
All of that stuff takes development time, there is really no small potato items on that list at all. Well worth the upgrade cost for those of us who are really utilizing this software to create animation libraries for our projects.

We just bought in last week at the basic pricing level and was happy to do so. The project I'm using ipi for is very unique (its final look that is) and I wouldn't even consider doing it without mocap. The mocap makes the whole thing come alive in a way that really works with the visual style of this project so its certainly paying for itself. I am glad we held off a bit because we want to set up another system using the xtion or PS3 cameras and have it record along side the kinect system as a "back up" for when a shot can't be done with the kinect as nicely as a 6 camera system (of course we will have to upgrade to full I suppose), on another box.

I do have a complaint though about one thing. It would be nice if the recorder was the paid part of the software and not the studio part. Why? Because I need to process a shit load of mocap and I could do it on multiple machines in a batch which is what I really need instead of free recorders everywhere which is kind of pointless. We will see what happens with Version 2.0 but I'm looking forward to it for sure. Any word when paid customers can get access to the beta? We literally bought last week so we are in for april release for free so keep us posted.

Kat

Oh yeah and I would really like to be able to use the Nyko wide angle lens adapters for the Kinects in version 2. Any chance thats possible?

I've been asking for a batch queue for a couple of years and I think it's on their list of 'things to do when we're not quite so busy'. FWIW, the batch queue became less critical for me when the software switched to GPU a couple of years ago--before then it took Studio about 10 to 15 seconds per frame; now it takes 0.67 seconds per frame on my modest (by today's standards) GTX 460, so you might understand why I don't feel quite the need to complain these days. That said, I can still really use this feature. REALLY! :)

BTW, you can process using multiple instances of Studio at the same time on a single machine. Not ideal I know but depending on your graphics card this can help cut down processing time.*

G.

*On second though, I'm not sure this is any faster--I haven't actually tested multiple instances for speed. All this may really mean is that you don't have to be quite as attentive to the renders since you can load and run several files at the same time--which essentially what you get with a batch queue anyway, you just need more resources to do them all at the same time. In any case, multiple instances also makes it possible to be tracking one file while setting up the next one, which is still helpful.

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Greenlaw
Artist/Partner - Little Green Dog | My Demo Reels (2013,) (2015,) (2017,) and (2019)

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Has Ipi given a specific launch day in April? All I've seen from the press release is it's 'Spring' 2012.

I simply cannot wait any longer, the wait is killing me! ha ha

Ive done it when Ive left long sequences to process...

with 6core amd and gtx470 OC...

Opening a second instance of ipi increases the resolve time per frame (in each) by about 0.1 seconds... pretty much the same speed with one instance as 2. Opening a third... +4secs per frame.

So yeah... 2's my limit.

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Yeah, I know what you mean. To be honest, I just avoid tracking long takes now. What really helps is using the Takes feature in iPi Studio to break down a long video into smaller chunks of only what I actually need. When I was tracking for Happy Box, I set Takes for only what was in my edit plus some handles. (Obviously, it helps to have an edit/animatic prepared before you shoot the mocap.) A total of 17 shots with three different characters was shot with multiple takes for each character using iPi Recorder, but only what you see in the final film was actually selected with Takes and tracked in iPi Studio. With most shots running only a few seconds long, the tracking for the film went very quickly even with supervision.

Tracking for the next film should go about as quickly. There are nearly 60 shots this time but the longest shots are less than 8 seconds long, and most of the shots are much shorter. Knowing this in advance already makes the task seem very manageable even with only one artist doing all the tracking.

G.

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Greenlaw
Artist/Partner - Little Green Dog | My Demo Reels (2013,) (2015,) (2017,) and (2019)

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

It would be a 90 day cutoff. I bought it just after Xmas, so I'll be just barely outside the window. That's mildly annoying.

Are the "new actor appearance models" going to include a "fat guy" model? Without revealing too much about myself, I could use one ;-)